Frequent readers will recall the Oakley ski goggles from last month. Turns out you can buy the technology without the goggle -- and put it into the goggle of your choice. Recon Instruments sells the Snow2 Android-based insert. Onboard sensors measure your speed descent, distance, and so on; it'll interface with heart monitors and cameras, and allow Bluetooth 4.0 connections … [Read more...]
Evena Blade: Glasses to See Your Veins
Ever gone for medical tests or needed IV fluids, and the phlebotomist or nurse took a few years to find the vein? That may be a little uncomfortable in a doctor's office. On the battlefield, in a medical emergency, getting that vein becomes critically important. Evena Medical has a set of goggles that essentially makes your skin disappear and lets medical staff see exactly … [Read more...]
Baby Monitors
There's a scene in the movie Terms of Endearment where the relationship between the characters played by Shirley MacLaine and her screen daughter Debra Winger is illustrated by the mother obsessively waking her baby to make sure she was still breathing. I wonder if wearable baby tech is the same thing in more palatable clothing. Babble's got a roundup of baby monitoring … [Read more...]
Qualcomm Toq Smartwatch Goes on Sale December 2
Every so often, the chipmaker Qualcomm has a brain freeze and decides it wants to play in the consumer market; it rarely ends well. The latest is a smartwatch that's going on sale in a couple of weeks. The thing is, it sounds like it might be pretty interesting. One way the Toq watch is different is that its wearers don't need two hands to tell the time; the screen is always … [Read more...]
Wearables Startup in Nairobi, Kenya
I always like hearing about tech startups in emerging markets, so news about a tech incubator in Nairobi is worth repeating. The Nailab says it's set its third round of startups, including iContent Systems, which will make glowing clothes for night bike taxi drivers. Apparently, bike taxi drivers getting hit by motorists at night is a major problem in Kenya. Here's hoping … [Read more...]
Smart Trench Coat from Motiif
Does the world need a "smart" trench coat? Could be. Motiif, a New York City fashion company, is prepping a pretty snappy-looking waterproof cotton trench that includes a 4G data hotspot and wireless telephone charging station in a breast pocket. The first 1GB of data per month is free, and it's $14/GB above that. No idea what the charging cord will look like, or how many … [Read more...]
Novasentis Haptic Actuator wins CES Innovations Award
One of the lower-key exhibits at the Engadget Expand conference last week was a table that showed a centimeter-square leaf of plastic with a wire running to it from a small panel of electronics. All the leaf did was flex and unflex, but it was doing it in response to electronic signals -- and that's a pretty good technical trick. A few days later, the Novasentis … [Read more...]
Reebok Skullcap wins CES Innovations Award
Just the other day, we wrote about the Reebok Checklight head impact monitor, powered by technology from MC10. Yesterday. the Checklight was awarded a 2014 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award. Those awards are kind of a big deal. Some of them are sometimes headscratchers from a commercial point of view, but they always reflect innovative product thinking and good … [Read more...]
Hands-on with the Avegant Retinal Display; Pre-orders at CES
I wrote last month about the Avegant Retinal Display, a goggle-style headset that projects images directly onto your retina. I got a hands-on demo Friday at Engadget Espand, as well as a chat with the energetic COO Yobie Benajmin, and it was a special as I'd hoped. Most goggle viewers work by throwing an image onto a tiny hi-res screen that sits close to your eyes. … [Read more...]
Moto Applies for “Skin Tattoo” Mic Patent
Engadget appears to have been first with the story, but Motorola Mobility (which is now a Google company) has applied for a patent for an "electronic skin tattoo" that acts as a microphone and which connects to a cell phone. The technology of this is obviously not easy, but the idea of microphones that work either through bone conduction or by touching your cheek or neck body … [Read more...]